CDC Tightened Guidance for U.S. Health Care Workers on Personal Protective Equipment for Ebola

CDC is tightening previous infection control guidance for health care workers caring for patients with Ebola, to ensure there is no ambiguity. The guidance focuses on specific personal protective equipment (PPE) health care workers should use and offers detailed step by step instructions for how to put the equipment on and take it off safely.

Recent experience from safely treating patients with Ebola at Emory University Hospital, Nebraska Medical Center and National Institutes of Health Clinical Center are reflected in the guidance.

The enhanced guidance is centered on three principles:

• All healthcare workers undergo rigorous training and are practiced and competent with PPE, including putting it on and taking it off in a systemic manner
• No skin exposure when PPE is worn
• All workers are supervised by a trained monitor who watches each worker putting PPE on and taking it off.

All patients treated at Emory University Hospital, Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center have followed the three principles. None of the workers at these facilities have contracted the illness.

For more information visit:

CDC Newsroom — Tightened Guidance for U.S. Healthcare Workers on Personal Protective Equipment for Ebola Fact Sheet – Oct 20

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/fs1020-ebola-personal-protective-equipment.html

CDC Guidance on Personal Protective Equipment To Be Used by Healthcare Workers During Management of Patients with Ebola Virus Disease in U.S. Hospitals, Including Procedures for Putting On (Donning) and Removing (Doffing) – Oct 20

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/procedures-for-ppe.html

Additional Clinician Resources

• When Caring for Suspect or Confirmed Patients with Ebola – Oct 19

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/caring-for-ebola-suspects.html

• Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus – Oct 17

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/human-transmission.html

• CDC Taking Active Steps Related to Hospital Preparedness for Ebola Treatment – Oct 14

www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/fs1014-ebola-investigation-fact-sheet.pdf

• Questions and Answers about Ebola and Pets – Oct 13

      http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas-pets.html  

• Ebola Medical Waste Management – Oct 13

      http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/medical-waste-management.html

• Put CDC Ebola content on your website that will update automatically. Add a CDC Ebola Microsite to your web page.  The embed code for this microsite is available in CDC’s new syndication site, the Public Health Media Library.  Ebola HTML content, images, and other media are being added and also available for syndication from this site. Please contact IMTech@cdc.gov for technical support.

External (Non-CDC) Resources on Personal Protective Equipment

• Emory Healthcare Ebola Preparedness Protocols

http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/ebola-protocol/ehc-message.html

• University of Nebraska Medical Center Personal Protective Equipment for Ebola

http://app1.unmc.edu/nursing/heroes/ppe_posters_vhf.cfm

• World Health Organization Infection Prevention and Control Guidance for Care of Patients in Health-care Settings, with Focus on Ebola

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/ebola/filovirus_infection_control/en/